Holy crap it's hot. People, animals, and crops are dying.
But not only is it hot, it's hotter than it used to be. And it's our fault. Welcome to the future of climate change.
Let's keep this simple: we know the Earth is warming up -- the data are unambiguous.* We know that humans are largely responsible -- the scientific community has been clear. And we know that the massive efforts to deny these two facts have confused policy makers, the public, and the media and have seriously delayed taking any sort of effective policy action to slow climate changes.
What this delay means, however, is rarely discussed, but in the most straightforward terms:
It's going to get even hotter. A lot hotter.
Global warming is causing or worsening some of the extreme weather we're seeing. This influence of climate change on some extremes, including especially heat waves and heavy precipitation and some kinds of storm and flood events must no longer be waved away, swept under the rug, or otherwise ignored. It must become part of our daily discussion and debate. Until then, our politicians, in their air-conditioned chambers, under pressure from lobbyists and others who fear the policies that must inevitably be put in place to reduce our atmospheric pollution, will continue to look the other way.
You know the old conversation starter? "Is it hot enough for you?"
Well, just wait.
* "The indicators show unequivocally that the world continues to warm," said Dr. Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center. "There is a clear and unmistakable signal from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans," said Dr. Peter Thorne of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, North Carolina State University.
Follow Peter H. Gleick on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PeterGleick
Ambassador Marlene Moses: Needed: A UN Special Representative on Climate Change and Security
Which is to say the Earth has been "doing its thing" for decades now - what are you waiting for?
Junksciencecutecritters: "You meant to say 'global average temperatures as prepared by James Hansen'..."
You seem confused again, JunkScience.
Global average temperature datasets are compiled and reported by several sources.  All of these datasets show an increasing global temperature trend over recent decades, including not just NASA's (where James Hanson works) surface dataset (GISS) but also for example the University of Alabama, Huntsville's satellite dataset (UAH).Â
The GISS and UAH datasets are in close agreement with each other:
http://tamino.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/bob-carter-does-his-business/
In your multi-year ongoin effort to obfuscate the fact that the globe has warmed over recent decades you JunkScience have repeatedly tried to imply that Dr. James Hanson has been lying with respect to the GISS dataset. Your slanderous obfuscation would only be logically valid, however, if all scientists who create and maintain all of the global temperature datasets are  also lying with respect to said datasets. That list of "lying" scientists would include the scientists who create and maintain the UAH dataset: Dr. Roy Spencer and Dr. John Christie.
Do you maintain that Dr. Spencer and Dr. Christie -- who also happen to be two of the relatively very few climate scientists that are also AGW "skeptics" -- are lying or otherwise dishonest with respect to the UAH global temperature record, JunkScience?
If not, your obfuscation is logically invalid, you know.
Wheat 60%
Legumes 62%
Other cereals 70%
Fruits 33%
Tuber crops 67%
Vegetables 51%
I'm reliably informed that Schopenhauer was thinking of AGW when making the following comment:--
"There is no opinion, however absurd,which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to theconviction that it is generally adopted."
(Schopenhauer,
Die Kunst Recht zu Behalten)
Are you going to guarantee that the temperature remains optimum for each species? Can you guarantee they will receive additional water to support all the new growth?
I predict crops will be disrupted by heat, by drought, and less than optimum conditions. Wheat likes it cool. It won't fare well in higher heat.
"guarantee" - are you guaranteeing that the climate models the acolytes prescribe to are 100% accurate?????
CO2 is treated by the acolytes as a pollutant whereas in reality it helps make God's wonderful planet livable & nourishes flora (in layman's terms).
Great name!. From now on, whenever givemtheirwish uses the word acolyte or a variation of acolyte, we should just respond with Bunkum
You claim to be a scientist and yet you've repeatedly refused to answer a relatively simple climate science question - upteenth-time's a charm?
Do you agree that the Greenhouse Effect is real, and that it keeps the mean temperature of the Earth well above freezing? If not, why not?
[ Que: still more evasion and disinformation from wishy. ]
p.s. if you say Greenhouse Effect is real ergo AGW isn't a complete fraud I'll fall off my chair laughing (YET AGAIN).
Do you agree that CO2 is the most plentiful greenhouse gas that can drive global warming? If not, why not?
FACT: recent volcanic activity not only disrupts flight paths, but contributes to sulfur in the earths atmosphere. Sulfur reflects solar radiation back in to space, contributing to global cooling.
FACT: the sun is in a low period or solar irradiation as per its 11 year cycle, resulting in less solar irradiation hitting the planet contributing to cooling.
FACT: El Niño & La Niña weather patterns exist and cause extreme heating or cooling.
Good luck in around 7 years from now, when the sun will be at full irradiation, the sulfur from volcanic eruptions will have dispersed and a El Niño weather pattern forms. Good Luck!
FACT:
I don't think CO2 restrictions will help those people. In fact, it's pretty clear that, in order to become less poor, they will need to emit more CO2. Then they will be better able to stay alive, and will even buy air conditioners.
To miss the upward temperature trend which is now so glaringly apparent, is to be completely blind to reality. You don't have to invoke anything other than your own powers of observation, and if you don't have any, then you are at the mercy of the Koch brothers, and Exxon Mobil, and the Heartworm Institute or other known providers of petroleum prevarication.... after all, doubt is good for their bottom line.. no mystery there...no tin foil hats.... just business as usual.
But I guess you would rather be dependent on the Nanny power plant ( coal powered, thank you ) and the Nanny Saudis ( Oh yes prince Fizoil! Whatever you say!) and cling to the past while the world progresses right by you.
Your choice, CC.
By James E. Hansen and Makiko Sato – July 2011
The past is the key to the future. Contrary to popular belief, climate models are not the principal basis for assessing human-made climate effects. Our most precise knowledge comes from Earth's paleoclimate, its ancient climate, and how it responded to past changes of climate forcings, including atmospheric composition. Our second essential source of information is provided by global observations today, especially satellite observations, which reveal how the climate system is responding to rapid human-made changes of atmospheric composition, especially atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Models help us interpret past and present climate changes, and, in so far as they succeed in simulating past changes, they provide a tool to help evaluate the impacts of alternative policies that affect climate.
read the rest
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/hansen_15/PaleoImplications.pdf
This one is on how Green Imperialism is effectively killing kids in the third world due to VAD.
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/the-big-green-killing-machine-what-is-vad/
John Holdren will be pleased...............
If you want to know the other side of the exact same argument, look at what GM crops have done to agricultural workers in India. Genetically-modified crops are designed to be infertile, so that they cannot reproduce on their own and farmers must instead return to Monsanto to buy more seeds.
Faced with difficult weather conditions, droughts and so forth due to failed monsoons, many of these farmers who lost their initial yields have no money to purchase a round of seeds for the following year. Starving, and deeply in debt, more than 17,000 farmers commit suicide every year.
http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
So lets treat it like a real figure skating event and appoint judges to mark the participants.
Here's how I've awarded points so far.
Rationalists: 98 Points Rhetorics: 2 Points (Perhaps due to Ork's hot spot flirtations)
These numbers coincidentally line up with the percentages of Climatologists who accept the science.
Until Sol enters the red giant stage of solar life I'm expecting rebirth in whatever bio-mass
survives. At last report it extended from higher reach of planet atmosphere down into hot
water within the crustal rock. After our planet is vaporized I'm expected an eventual nova
to scatter most of our basic elements outward. I'd expect something to come of that.
I'm not unhappy. You won't blame me doing kjangchag either.